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In this Desire To Trade interview, Siam Kidd lays out how he became the “boring is good” trader who spends 2–5 minutes a day scanning, places only high-probability swing and trend trades, and then gets on with life. He explains why journaling every trade, keeping risk tiny, and avoiding the siren song of day-trading noise let him survive early losses and compound during rare but explosive market moves—all while building multiple income pillars beyond trading.
Reading this, you’ll learn Siam’s exact approach to time-efficient scanning, how he sizes positions at fractions of a percent until a trend proves itself, and the journaling habits that turned him from “knowledgeable but losing” into consistent. You’ll also pick up his philosophy on treating trading like a business, engineering “small win / small loss / monumental win” outcomes, and using non-trading cashflow to remove pressure—so your strategy can breathe and your edge can show up when it matters.
Siam Kidd Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Philosophy: small risk, big trends, boring process
This is the backbone. Siam Kidd keeps risk tiny, hunts for asymmetric moves, and lets time do the heavy lifting. The aim is to make trading feel unexciting—because the excitement usually lives on losing screens.
- Risk a fixed 0.25%–0.50% of account equity per trade, never more.
- Define “success” as small wins, small losses, or rare outsized wins; avoid medium losses at all costs.
- Trade end-of-day (EOD) to mute noise; no intraday tinkering unless a rule explicitly requires it.
- Systematize everything: pre-written rules for entries, sizing, exits, and review cadence.
Markets & timeframe: liquid, clean, trend-friendly
He focuses on instruments that move cleanly and don’t require split-second reactions. The daily timeframe is the default, so execution is calm and replicable.
- Build a universe of 100–300 liquid names (major FX pairs, index/sector ETFs, large-cap stocks, liquid futures or CFDs).
- Use the daily chart for entries; confirm the regime on the weekly chart.
- Skip assets with erratic gaps/spreads; prefer instruments with tight slippage and reliable data.
- If you can’t enter or exit at size without obvious slippage, remove it from the universe.
Regime filter: trade with the tide
Before hunting setups, determine if the broader tide supports your idea. This avoids fighting chop and improves expectancy.
- “Up regime” when price is above the 200-day SMA and the 50-day SMA is above the 200-day SMA.
- “Down regime” occurs when the price is below the 200-day SMA and the 50-day SMA is below the 200-day SMA.
- Stand aside (no new positions) when the 50-day is within ±1% of the 200-day and the price is oscillating around both.
- Only take long setups in up regimes and short setups in down regimes.
Set up A (breakout): let momentum do the work
Breakouts capture the start or continuation of a trend without prediction. The job is to enter strength, then get out of the way.
- Go long on a 55-day high breakout; go short on a 55-day low breakdown.
- Entry buffer: place stops 0.1×ATR(20) beyond the breakout level to avoid “touch-and-fail”.
- Cancel the signal if the price reverts into the prior 20-day range within 3 bars.
- Avoid breakouts into immediate overhead/underfoot supply (recent major swing and round numbers).
Set up B (pullback): buy strength on sale
Pullbacks get you into trends at better prices. You’re aligning with momentum but demanding a discount.
- In an up regime, buy the first bullish reversal after a 2–4 bar pullback that tags the 20-day EMA.
- Require a higher low on intraday data or a daily reversal candle with above-average volume.
- For shorts in a down regime, mirror the rules: sell the first bearish reversal after tagging the 20-day EMA.
- Invalidate the setup if ATR(20) shrinks >25% below its 6-month median (too sleepy) or spikes >75% (too chaotic).
Position sizing: volatility-aware, stress-proof
Sizing converts ideas into controlled risk. The goal is to standardize pain so that one trade never matters.
- Position size = (Account Equity × Risk%) ÷ (ATR(20) × Multiplier).
- Use Multiplier = 2.0 for breakouts and 1.5 for pullbacks (breakouts need more breathing room).
- Cap exposure: max 6 open risk units (e.g., six 0.5% risks) across the whole book.
- Correlation guardrail: count instruments in the same macro bucket (e.g., USD, beta, energy) as half slots each.
Initial stop: survive first, compound later
Stops live where your idea is clearly wrong. They should reflect structure and volatility, not hope.
- For breakouts, initial stop = entry – 2×ATR(20) (long) or +2×ATR(20) (short).
- For pullbacks, initial stop = just beyond the pullback swing (≥1.5×ATR(20) from entry).
- If stop distance exceeds your position-size budget, pass the trade—never widen risk to “make it fit.”
- Move the stop to breakeven only after +1R is closed or the price closes beyond the prior 20-day extreme.
Scaling plan: pyramid into winners, not into losers
When the market proves you right, press the edge modestly. Keep adding mechanical and spacing.
- Add up to two times, each add spaced by +1R open profit from the last add.
- Each add is 50% of the initial position size.
- Trail the composite stop so total open risk never exceeds the original 1×R.
- No adds if open equity drawdown on the entire account is >5% in the last 30 days.
Exits: rules for both quick cuts and long rides
Exits make or break the expectancy. Use one “fast fail” exit and one “trend ride” exit so you cut early and hold late.
- Failure exit: if price closes back inside the prior 20-day range within 5 bars of entry, exit next open.
- Trend exit (breakouts): trail at 3×ATR(20) from the highest close (long) / lowest close (short).
- Trend exit (pullbacks): exit on a daily close across the 20-day EMA against your position.
- Time stop: if neither target nor trail is hit in 60 trading days and ATR has compressed >30% vs. entry, exit, and recycle.
Daily & weekly routine: 2–5 minutes that actually matter
Consistency beats intensity. A short, scripted routine keeps you out of trouble and in sync with the plan.
- End of day: update watchlist, scan for setups A/B, place/adjust orders, record any changes.
- Once a week: refresh regime labels, prune messy charts, and recalc ATRs and universe liquidity.
- Once a month: reset correlation groups and exposure caps; archive stale tickers that stopped trending.
- No mid-day chart checks unless an order r triggered and needs the predefined management step.
Risk dashboard: account-level brakes
Even great trades lose if the account is over-exposed. Hard brakes keep the equity curve tradable.
- Max single-name risk: 1.0% total (including pyramids).
- Max sector/theme risk: 2.0% total.
- Hard stop-trading rule: if drawdown hits 8%, pause new entries until the equity curve reclaims its 50-day moving average.
- Cut size by 50% after any three consecutive losing trades; restore only after two consecutive winners or +2R net.
Record-keeping: journal like a business owner
Siam Kidd emphasizes journaling to close the loop between plan and execution. Treat notes like R&D for your edge.
- Log every trade with screenshots at entry, +1R, and exit, plus the exact rule invoked.
- Tag trades by setup (A/B), regime (up/down/neutral), and volatility state (low/normal/high).
- Track expectancy per tag monthly; deactivate any tag that shows negative expectancy for 3 consecutive months.
- Maintain a “mistake ledger” and apply a 0.1R penalty donation per process violation to create immediate feedback.
Psychology & lifestyle: remove pressure, keep clarity
He optimizes life around trading so decisions stay clean. The less you “need” a trade, the better you’ll trade it.
- Pre-commit to outcome-agnostic language: “follow rules or don’t trade.”
- Limit screen time to routine blocks; uninstall price alerts that aren’t tied to rule-based actions.
- Keep non-trading income or cash buffer ≥12 months living costs to reduce “must win” pressure.
- Celebrate process wins (flawless rule execution) rather than P&L spikes.
Optimization & iteration: small tweaks, not wholesale rebuilds
Edges are refined, not reinvented. Change one variable at a time, measure, and keep what compounds.
- Review quarterly: adjust breakout length (e.g., 40/55/80-day) only if expectancy improves across 200+ samples.
- Test ATR multipliers in 0.5 increments; never change entry, stop, and exit rules in the same quarter.
- Remove any rule that adds complexity without improving win×payoff meaningfully.
- Archive a changelog so you can revert to the last known good configuration instantly.
Portfolio example: converting rules into slots
Turning rules into positions forces discipline. Think in “risk slots,” not tickers.
- Allocate 6 risk slots maximum across uncorrelated themes (e.g., USD trend, energy trend, tech momentum, defensive FX).
- Never allocate more than 2 slots to a single macro driver.
- If a new A-quality setup appears when all slots are full, only enter it by closing a lower-quality open slot.
- Rebalance slot usage weekly so you don’t drift into hidden concentration.
Size risk is tiny, so winners breathe; avoid medium losses entirely
Siam Kidd is blunt about this: if your risk is small enough, you can survive long enough for the big trend to pay you. He treats position size like the master dial, often keeping it around a fraction of a percent per trade, so no single outcome matters. That keeps psychology calm, execution clean, and the account resilient to noise. Tiny risk also makes “hold time” possible, because you’re not panicking at every wiggle.
The second half of the rule is killing off medium losses before they metastasize. Siam codifies exits so a failed idea gets cut quickly—think predefined stops, no averaging down, and moving to breakeven only after genuine progress. He frames results in R-multiples, aiming for lots of scratches and small losses while protecting the runway for those occasional multi-R winners. When a trade hesitates or violates structure, he bails and recycles risk into the next clean setup.
Trade end-of-day breakouts and pullbacks; let trends prove themselves
Siam Kidd keeps execution simple by working off the daily close, not intraday noise. He buys strength breaking to fresh highs or sells weakness breaking to fresh lows, then lets a closing bar confirm the move. That single timing choice slashes false urgency and reduces fiddling, which is exactly how he protects the edge. With daily data, he can see the “real” move, not the lunchtime head-fakes.
When the market is trending but stretched, Siam waits for a pullback to the moving average zone and a clean reversal candle before pulling the trigger. He doesn’t chase; he lets the trend reassert itself and only then joins the party. If the close slips back into the old range after entry, he’s out and on to the next setup. The motto is consistent: end-of-day rules, clear structures, and proof first—prediction second.
Allocate by volatility and correlation; cap total risk slots per theme.
Siam Kidd treats position sizing like plumbing—flow more capital to calm pipes, and restrict flow to the volatile ones. He scales exposure using ATR or similar volatility measures so each trade risks roughly the same pain in currency terms. Then he maps correlation clusters (USD trades, energy beta, tech momentum) and limits how many “slots” each theme can occupy at any time. The result is a book that won’t blow up just because one macro story goes sour.
When a new A-grade setup appears, Siam checks whether its themehas already maxed out its risk slots before he even looks at the chart again. If it’s full, he either passes or swaps out the weakest occupant—never stacking correlated bets because “three trades” would secretly be one. As volatility changes, slot sizes flex down or up, keeping realized risk steady through shifting markets. This is how he keeps the equity curve tradable: size by volatility, diversify by driver, and let correlation caps throttle greed.
Use mechanical entries, ATR stops, pyramids; never widen initial risk.
Siam Kidd keeps entries mechanical, so there’s nothing to debate when price hits the level—either a breakout trigger or a pullback confirmation on the close. Once in, he sets the initial stop using a multiple of ATR so the trade breathes in proportion to volatility, not emotion. That stop is sacred; he won’t widen it to “make the trade work,” because that turns a planned loss into an unplanned hole. If price quickly invalidates the premise, he’s out and ready to recycle risk into a cleaner setup.
When a position moves his way, Siam pyramids methodically—adding smaller clips only after banked progress, typically around +1R increments. Each add comes with the same ATR logic and a trailing plan that keeps total open risk contained beneath the original dollar risk. If momentum fades or the trail is hit, he lets the exit trigger without second-guessing, protecting prior gains. The rhythm is simple and repeatable: rule-based entry, volatility-sized stop, disciplined pyramids, and zero tolerance for widening risk.
Journal ruthlessly, review expectancy, pause new trades during ddrawdownns
Siam Kidd treats journaling like a trading edge, not homework. He records the setup, regime, ATR, entry, stop, and management decisions, plus a screenshot at entry and exit. After enough samples, he calculates expectancy by setup and market condition, then prunes anything that’s losing money in the real world. The goal is to make the book more of what works and less of what doesn’t—quantified, not guessed.
When the equity curve slips, Siam Kidd downshifts before damage compounds. He pauses new risk during drawdowns, cuts size after a string of losses, and only reopens throttle when performance stabilizes. That circuit breaker keeps emotions contained and preserves dry powder for the next clean trend. Combined with disciplined reviews, the routine converts mistakes into rules and volatility into controlled opportunity.
Siam Kidd’s core lesson is that “boring wins.” He trades mostly on the daily chart, spends five minutes or less a day, and builds everything around tiny position sizes so no single trade matters. By treating trading like a real business—journaling every decision, screenshotting entries and exits, and writing down the exact reason for each trade—he shortens the learning loop and strengthens discipline. He thinks in time ROI: a 50% drawdown can set you back years, while a 10% drawdown is months; the way you avoid the former is by sizing small, cutting losers quickly, and letting only the rare, proven trends run.
He favors simple structures that create positive skew: small losses, plenty of scratches, and occasional outsized wins. End-of-day breakouts or clean pullback reversals do the heavy lifting, with predefined stops that never get widened. Accuracy isn’t the goal—payoff is—because a “90% win rate” system with massive stops just hides one catastrophic loss. Siam Kidd also caps correlated exposure and thinks in themes, so three positions tied to the same macro driver don’t secretly become one bet. The final layer is lifestyle: multiple income pillars reduce pressure, screens stay off outside the routine, and if the equity curve dips, he slows down or pauses new risk until performance stabilizes. Put together, it’s a boring machine designed to survive long enough for trends to pay—without blowing up your calendar or your account.
